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8 April 2014

Book Review: The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy, #1) by Marie Rutkoski

Format: Kindle (Review)

Publishers: Bloomsbury

Published: 3rd July 2014

Pages: 368

Genre:YA, Fantasy, Romance

Main Characters: Kestrel, Arin

Date Read: 2nd April - 7th April 2014

Rating Given:

Blurb:Winning what you want may cost you everything you love.As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions. One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction.Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin. But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined. Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.

I felt like I needed to read a good YA book as at the minute NA and Adult books are so much better, so I thought I would be ok with this one especially after all those rave reviews. Oh boy was I wrong...

Before I even read all the reviews I wanted this book just because of my love of the cover. The cover stands out for me because of the dress with all those ruffles it reminded me of The Luxe series. I loved the layout of the title and the authors name as it worked really well with the rest of the cover.

When I first started this book I was going to stop reading it as not only could I not get into it but it was a review book from Netgalley with every other line having no spaces so it was very difficult to understand. For quite a lot of the book there was anything of interest happening you just knew that something was going to happen and it did which made it a lot more interesting. There was moments in this book where I couldn't put it down but for the most part I just didn't get all those five star ratings. I thought the romance was very much lacking and I would loved to have a bit more focus on it but it was more believable than some books as it wasn't love at first sight and it took awhile for them to understand their attraction towards one another. Towards the end I was thinking about giving it a higher rating as I really got into it but then the ending happened and it put me off, although I do feel like I am more likely to read the next book than what I did in the beginning.

For the most part of this book I didn't really have any feelings towards the characters and it wasn't until closer to the end when I started liking them. Kestrel I felt grew up a lot during this book because at the beginning she seemed a little too naive and annoying but on the other hand you could tell she was a clever person. I thought I was going to really like Arin but I just couldn't warm to him until the end when he started to be sweet. There was a few other characters in there but I wasn't really sure who to like as they all seemed to have a hidden agenda.

Overall the beginning should have started off more like the second half of the book as then it would have been amazing but in the end I just found this book a bit lacking.

About Me

Hey everyone my name's Kate and I'm from the UK.
I love to read just about anything but at this moment in time I am addicted to Contemporary Romance, New Adult and Paranormal Romance.
If you want me to review your book you can email me at katesbooklife@hotmail.co.uk

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Review Ratings

5 - Amazing Perfect in everyway4.5 - A great book 4 - A very good book I found it a very interesting book but something was missing3.5 - Good3 - Liked it 2.5 - Not Bad, But not good2 - It was O.K. Some of the book was interesting but not much1.5 - Disliked couldn't get into it but there was something that kept me reading1 - Hated I just couldn't get into this book